Monday, December 04, 2006

Victory

Thank you to everyone who voted for Joy of Sox for best sports blog in Canada. He won! And it was an amazing finish to the voting. Joy sums it up here. We pulled out all the stops: Jhonny's dgo, Willis and Kimberly, Paris Hilton, bloggers and message boards, and all of you helped him take the title. Thanks. (Also, all you sane people don't have to hear about this anymore!)

About Curt Schilling: Terrible job, Curt, for talking about Manny like that. Why do I get the feeling no one will call Curt a "cancer on the clubhouse" for talking about teammates when they're not there to defend themselves? And you'd think Schilling, who was accused of faking the bloody sock thing (by Mr. So-Called Class-up-the-ass Joe Torre, mind you) wouldn't go around accusing other players of faking injuries or quitting on the team. It's almost like Curt is just another internet fan, reading the articles and spouting opinions based on them. (I guess that's exactly what he is--we knew that.) I would hope a veteran player like that would have the sense to talk to the teammate before going public (despite the speculation) and think about how not doing that could really hurt the team. You want to win the World Series in your final year, Curt? I hope you don't have to face Manny in Game 7, because the question won't be if he homers off you, but how many minutes he'll stand there at home plate after he hits the ball out, rubbing it in your face (deservedly). If we trade him, I hope it's to a team we never see in the postseason.

In Gedman news, I saw a Gedman card on ebay as part of the Worcester Tornadoes 2006 set. (Rich manages the Twisters.) It was ten bucks, so I checked the Tornadoes' site, and they were only five there. Gold, I thought, 'til I saw the shipping would be $5.50! It was still cheaper that way, because the ebay person was charging three dollars for shipping. So I went the offical way. However, I figured if I was gonna pay %5.50 for shipping, I might as well add something to my order. Today, folks, I am the proud owner of a Worcester Tornadoes Sharpie! A full Gedman baseball card update will come one of these days.

He called out (to varying degrees) both Scott Williamson and Matt Clement for not taking the hill. Turns out they were both seriously injured. The doctors who opened up Swilly's shoulder said it looked like a bomb had gone off in there.

Where did Schilling suggest Manny was faking an injury? I took his quote to mean that if Manny's request to be traded isn't granted, that he'll holdout.

I listened to most of the interview. Curt spent most of the time defending J.D. Drew - and bashing the Boston media for their handling of him. I guess Curt had some less than favorable things about Drew when they were both Phillies - so he spent a lot of the time apologizing for those comments.

By saying he'll not really be here if he's here means he'd "quit" on the team, and the way that's done is to say you're injured when you're not, so you don't have to play. That's how I took that. It just seems to me that Curt was basically saying "all that stuff Matty and Peter are sying about Manny are true, we'd be better off without him."

Well, obviously Curt is not sticking to the scripts we've prepared together, but yeah, I agree with STJ's take on Curt's comments. I don't think he suggested Manny faked; I got the impression, that like me, he'd love to a have a healthy, WILLING Manny in the lineup; but if we have to choose between Flaky Manny, and some guy who won't hit as many dingers, well, let's take our chances with Non-Flaky-Manny guy. And that I'd agree with; it gets to my most basic point about Manny: when he's good, he's damn near the best, but when he's not, I'd rather replace him with damn near anybody. It's a situation we've endured for long enough. Let's take our chances with someone who WANTS to play in Boston, even if he's, you know, not superhuman...

>>>>I don't see a difference between saying, "he'll flake out" and "he'll fake injury," as that seems to be the main way one can not play while still being on the team.>>>>>

Yes, but there's a huge difference in a teammate saying "he's faking injury" to saying "he says he'll holdout". I say no TJ on Curt. It was a good interview, and I like the fact that he doesn't BS anyone. And that he yells at WEEI hosts. I think I'll miss his interviews more than his pitching.

The ownership of the team after the Yankee debacle. We were just a few games back in the wild card so I didn't know they'd quit until they got rid of David Wells who all but killed himself for us. And the reason I knew it then was because Tito took the Wells-dropping so hard. Our second-stringers were commendable the way they kept playing their hearts out even though the Red Sox owners quit. Meanwhile, Manny is no fool. Why play injured when it's over? So why isn't anyone noting that Schilling and Papelbon's butts were on the same bench with Manny? Oh,yeah... they were injured. But Manny wasn't??? Yes, he was and that's why he quit--for the same reason his two benchmates did.I thought I stopped being an idiot when the late Johnny Damon deserted. Thanks a lot, Peter. ps. I'm really missing BS about now. Come back, BS, and keep telling us to see past our bias.